Bear60's Blog

February 20, 2010, Austin, Texas

The Campaign to End the Death Penalty sponsored a presentation entitled Lynching Then Lynching Now: the Roots of Racism and the Death Penalty in America. The event was held at UT, and Alan Bean (founder of http://www.friendsofjustice.org) partnered with Lily Hughes (national board member of the CEDP, and local representative in Austin. The workshop also included a Q & A time at the end of the workshop followed by a panel discussion.

As the title of the workshop affirms, there is a direct link between those executed on Death Row and racism. Racism still permeates many levels of all our institutions, but there is no more glaring injustice to all people, especially to persons of color, than our criminal justice system. Just as lynching was an integral part of southern culture during slavery and the Jim Crow era, so has the incarceration of persons of color (and at every phase) become our new lynching, and for many the obscene presence of the Death Penalty as it manifests today. The fact is this is an insidiously covert part of our American way of life, and so much so that we are unaware or ignorant of its reality—a notable feature of European Americans.

This lack of the understanding of accurate and historically proven knowledge has continued to perpetuate the stereotypes of Latina (o) s, Arab Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans and so many other cultures who live in the U.S. This maze keeps us (European Americans) transfixed in ignorance, yes; it breeds more of the same if we don’t substitute it with truth.

Another effect is that we so often fail to view the nature of life as systemic and interdependent. To use this kind of perception means to acquire the art of seeing how the relationships of various cells or families or groups or cultures intermix with each other, bump up against each other, communicate with one another, to observe cause-and-effect relationships and dynamics, make choices and distinguish among different options. To view the world around us without a systemic model or paradigm, is myopic, and will cause us to end up where we don’t want to go.

We need clarity when we look at Racism and the Death Penalty through a “systemic” lens. We are looking at consequences and outcomes when we examine the Criminal Justice System. There are rational reasons for the way things are in the status quo. Here are some more stats from http://www.publiceye.org that will give facts to show there is a connection between Racism and the Death Penalty:

*Our U.S. prisons contain 2.1 million people, and 70% are persons of color
*African Americans comprise 13% of the U.S. population, but are 48% of adults in the prison system
*African American males, if the current trend continues, can expect a 1 in 3 reality of winding up incarcerated
*Latina (I purposely use this term for both men and women) Americans represent about 10% of the U.S. population, but they’re 19% of people who are incarcerated; they comprise 23% of those convicted for drug offences
*1 in 25 adult Native Americans is under the jurisdiction of the nation’s criminal justice system—more than twice the number of White adults in the system
*About 43% of death row prisoners are African American, more than three times the percentage of African Americans in the national population

One of the presenters, Alan Bean, said, “We’re dealing with a new Jim Crow” in our contemporary culture; he continued to wrap up his presentation by saying that it’s possible to combat it with new narratives, and this is a way to win popular support. At the end of this portion, Lily and Alan answered questions from the participants.

A dictionary definition of racism is that it’s a way of prejudice and bias that stems from our belief that we are racially superior, as an individual or as a group, in relationship with others. Actually, I lied—this is not strictly a dictionary definition. It’s one that I have synthesized from various sources.
If we believe we (Whites) are superior, in every way, then we can justify actions that are against every ethical point, and punish them. Certain religious teachings beginning around the Nineteenth Century interpreted the Bible to say that Blacks, Jews and others were animals and devoid of a soul. On the other hand, the White line was pure and was the recipients of the riches of the world. Thus, a manifest destiny was created as a part of our fictional, national narrative.

A state-sponsored lynching now lacks the frivolity of lynchings in quaint little towns by those who claimed to “follow the Lord.” Those who are most concerned about laws and more laws carry out the law; we pick and choose and dispense with a law of compassion and justice. These serious people in all institutions, mainly those who usually are at the top, wield the power and collude with each other. Most CEOs are still white and male. 98% of DAs are European American.

Even though we have passed many laws dealing with discrimination, racism is still our national way of life. Racism has always been about Whites enriching themselves (such as in the privatized penal-industrial complex) at the expense of others who don’t look like us. Many folks think that racism is only about individual actions of putting persons of color at disadvantage, or those we deem inferior, but clearly there is a direct relationship between racism, imprisonment and the implementation of the death penalty.

Meanwhile, Whites remain invisible to themselves. Why is this? We wear our invisibility well, because we don’t see our part in the historical-psycho-social-economic problem of racism.

Persons of color already see it, because they’ve lived with it for about four hundred years; they know it and feel it, but generally speaking European Americans live a life of denial when it comes to racism. How often do you see a group of White folks talking opening about the problem, with the intention of changing the causal factors? At the end of the day, we don’t want to abandon our White Privilege.

The use of the death penalty as a method whereby to continue to keep racism alive will be clear to those willing to open-mindedly and clearly examine the connection between racism and the death penalty. We, as those who claim European descent, need to do our own healing and changing first. We can’t expect anyone else to do it for us, because it’s our responsibility. We may be inspired by our change, and other’s change, to fuel the movement of abolishing the death penalty.

© Christopher Bear Beam, M.A. February, 2010